GABBA U16 ready to play in Eurobasket

Gibraltar’s Under 16 National teams will be participating in their respective FIBA EuroBasket Division C Championships this week.

The boys, led by Head of Delegation Tim Azopardi, arrived in Yerevan, capital of Armenia, early this Friday morning after an eight hours’ flight from Malaga, with a stop-over in Istanbul. Coach Stevie Linares, assisted by the Senior Men’s coach Stuart Felice, with Therapist David Connor, will be working hard to achieve an improvement on recent performances.

The 12 players are: Jake Canepa (captain), Imran Atoloye, Matthew Byrne, Jack Cassaglia, Evan Cocklan, Shae Felice, Ben Lejeune, Oliver Lines, Andres Luque, Evan Pilcher, Kamran Sassani and Julek Wojniak.

The competition starts today, Saturday but the team, drawn in a group of 5, don’t play their first match until Sunday, when they face Armenia (tip-off 5:00 pm). They then face Malta on Monday, Monaco on Wednesday and Andorra on Thursday, tip-off time 7:30 pm for all these matches (Gibraltar time).

Albania, Kosovo, Moldova and San Marino make up the other group. The matches for final placings will be played next weekend.

The girls, led by Head of Delegation Lianne Whitfield, leave tomorrow, Sunday from Malaga on a direct flight to Malta. Coach Kira Ruiz Afrah, assisted by Valerie Doherty, with Sports Therapist Louise Gonçalves, have the following players at their disposal:

Daniela Martinez (captain), Yasmine Asri Sasri, Briella Bagu, Chloe Balban, Isla Balban, Erin Berry, Brylee Costa, Erin Doherty, Tasnim El Yettefti, Malak Kriech, Lily Mauro and Ava Perez.

Also in the delegation is accompanying FIBA referee James Dominique.

Drawn in Group B, Gibraltar play Albania on Tuesday (tip-off 1:30 pm), Moldova on Wednesday (tip-off 6:30 pm), and Armenia on Thursday (tip-off 1:30 pm).

Malta, Georgia and Kosovo are in Group A.

The matches for final placings will be played next weekend.
All matches in both competitions are live-streamed and can be seen via the FIBA official online channels.